Title: Where Are You On Your Journey?Theme: What is the level of our discipleship in following Jesus?Readings: Ex 32:7-11, 13-14; 1Tim1:12-17; Lk 15:1-10

As I mentioned in my homily last week, our parish theme for this year is “Awake!” because God wants us to wake up to Jesus to have a deeper relationship with him as his disciples and as 100% Catholics. To do that we have to make Jesus the priority in our lives – not just a priority, but the priority – if we are going to find the happiness and meaning for which we hunger.

This week, I want to lay out for you the steps to making Jesus our priority. They are the steps to becoming an intentional disciple of Jesus, and afterward I am going to ask you to think about where you are on that journey. Look below for a diagram of circles that are called the “thresholds of discipleship” in English and Spanish.

As you can see on the diagram, our journey towards discipleship begins at the Threshold of Trust – the blue outer circle in the diagram. Trust is the foundational element we need to come to God. If we are at this early stage of discipleship:
1. We have a sense of trust in or some kind of positive feeling about God or Jesus or the Church or a Catholic person or something identifiably Catholic.
2. For example, even if we do not come to mass very often, we might come to mass on Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Easter, Mother’s Day or some other special day as a favor to our mom or another person we care about; or we go to a wedding, funeral, baptism or other celebration because someone has invited us.
3. At this threshold of trust, we may have a genuine spiritual yearning, a sense of wanting or needing more in life; but we do not have an active, personal faith yet because we still do not trust enough in or know enough about God or Jesus or the Church to take the next step.

The next threshold of discipleship – the green circle on the diagram – is “Spiritual Curiosity.”
1. We are probably at the Threshold of Curiosity if, in addition to having the sense of trust I just mentioned, we find ourselves intrigued by or desiring to know more about Jesus, his life and teachings or some aspect of the Christian faith.
2. We might enjoy reading or watching things about religion, about God or Jesus or the Church or talking to others about these things.
3. Curiosity is important but it is still essentially casual and passive. Curiosity involves trust but not yet openness to change.
4. Now, on the other hand, if we find coming to mass boring and we come just because someone makes us come, and we are basically uninterested in our Catholic faith or in religious things, we are definitely not yet at the threshold of curiosity; we are still at the trust threshold or even at the pre-trust/pre-belief threshold. This is not a judgment; I am not saying people at this level are bad. It is simply a statement about where they are in their journey with the Lord.

The third threshold in the journey of discipleship is “Spiritual Openness” – the yellow circle in the diagram.
1. At this threshold we have moved beyond a simple curiosity to a real desire to know more. We find ourselves thinking: “I really need to look into this more; there may be something here for me.”
2. It is a sense of curiosity that has begun to move from our head to our heart because we begin to believe that God not only exists but that he is a person with whom it is possible to have a relationship.
3. At this threshold we are ready to admit to ourselves and to God that we are open to the possibility of personal and spiritual change – but, it is not yet a commitment to change.

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Let me just take a few moments here to say that most Catholics are at one of these first three thresholds: trust, curiosity or openness. That means most of us here in this church right now are at:
· The elementary level of trust where there is not a lot of engagement or desire to be here, to connect with God or to follow Jesus. Honestly, at this threshold we are just going through the motions in our faith with no real commitment;
· Or, we might be at the threshold of curiosity where there is the beginning of some interest in learning more, in thinking about our faith and our relationship with God;
· Or, we could be further along at the threshold of openness where we are actually beginning to wonder about having a meaningful relationship with Jesus and with God, but we’re still not sure and not ready to move forward;

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The next threshold in the journey of discipleship is Spiritual Seeking – the orange circle in the diagram.
1. This is a dramatic step forward in discipleship because we now become active in our search for God, for truth and meaning in life, and we are no longer in the passive mode of the earlier thresholds of trust, curiosity, and openness.
2. We now are certain that a personal relationship with God and with Jesus is possible, and, in fact, we are seriously considering the possibility of following Jesus as his disciple.
3. At this stage we normally begin to go to mass more frequently and pray more often, and perhaps get involved in helping out in some way. Most of all, we are hungry to learn more about God, Jesus and the faith, so we attend talks, classes, workshops and read more about religious topics.

Finally, we come to a point where we have to make a final decision whether or not we are going to follow Jesus – we cannot seek forever. This is the Threshold of Discipleship – the red circle in the diagram.
1. When we cross into this threshold, we have finally made the decision to “drop our nets,” i.e., we have made a conscious commitment to follow Jesus as his disciple. This is where the theme of this preaching series comes from. It is not something that just happens to us; it is a definite decision we consciously make. More than anything, it means we are ready and willing to change our life and to try to live according to the Gospel and the Church’s teachings. This is where our priorities in life begin to change.
2. At this stage, some of the changes in our lives can be dramatic: we might begin to go to daily mass; we pray and read the Bible more seriously; we may give up alcohol, drugs or other addictive behaviors and we may drop certain friends or activities that have been leading us astray in the past; we look to serve others more frequently; and, we begin to give generously financially to church and to charities;
3. Entering the threshold of discipleship can be a very dramatic and emotional time where everyone around us knows something has happened, or it can be a quiet and internal moment where we are simply flooded with peace and joy. But, the point is, we will know that we have surrendered to Jesus, that we are in love with him and that we want to bring others to him.
4. This threshold of intentional discipleship is the goal for all Catholic Christians. It is where God desires us to be; it is the reason he made us.

Now, this was a very quick and brief summary of the thresholds of discipleship. I have written a similar summary in today’s bulletin along with a picture of the circles. You can also find that information on our web page if you wish to share it with others or reflect on it more yourself.

Moving forward from one threshold to the next can happen quickly or it may take years because our journey to God is unique for each of us. Moreover, our journey through the thresholds of discipleship is never finished; it always has ups and downs, moments of grace and moments of darkness. And we need to keep in mind that being at the deeper thresholds is not necessarily an indication of moral or spiritual superiority over those at the earlier thresholds; it simply means that seekers and disciples tend to be more aware of and hungry for God’s loving presence and goodness in their lives. All of us, no matter which threshold we are at, continue to be sinners in need of God’s mercy and grace.

So, the question I have for all of us today is where are you on your journey with Jesus? At which threshold do you think you are at this time of your life: trust, spiritual curiosity, spiritual openness, spiritual seeking or discipleship? I would like to ask you now to take one of the blue slips of paper in the pews with a fish shape on it and write down on that paper which threshold you think you are in at this point of your life. Those papers will be collected in a minute and placed up here at the altar.

While you are doing that, I want to say just a few more things. If you think you know where you are on your journey with Jesus now, is it where you want to be? If not, what do you need to do to move in that direction; what do you need to change in your life? If you do not know exactly which threshold you might be at, I encourage you to pray and think about it some more and even to talk to someone you trust about it and see if they can help you discern where you are in your walk with the Lord. I also want to make an important announcement: we will be having a great workshop with Fr. Mike Fones, a Dominican priest who travels the country giving workshops on discipleship and the thresholds. The workshop will be Monday, September 30.

The most important thing to remember is that, wherever you are on your journey, as our Gospel tells us today, God is seeking you relentlessly and with amazing love and wants a deep, personal relationship with you!

Next weekend I will be taking a little break in my series on discipleship because it will be Harvest Faire weekend. In two weeks I will come back to talk about being a disciple of Jesus but from a different perspective. I am going to ask you why God made you and me. Did God have a dream for us when he made us? What does God want us to do with our lives? See you then.